Wild Stallion Vineyards

I had been wanting to visit Wild Stallion Vineyards for a while now, but the winery was originally opened for events like weddings and then moved into hosting concerts. Seeing how the winery is located in Spring, Texas, a short drive for us, I kept waiting for the time when we could perhaps visit and do a tasting of their wines. That time finally came recently.

Wild Stallion Vineyards is owned by Larry and Karen Cress and they first planted a vineyard on their estate in 2008. They opened the winery in 2013 and events started in 2014. The vineyard currently is growing 2.5 acres of Blanc du Bois.

As I said, I had been watching Wild Stallion’s Facebook page for their weekly concerts to see if we would be in town for one of the great local artists, so we could visit the winery. But I was really watching too to see if they would be doing tastings. That Facebook post came on offering Saturday wine tastings, and we decided to visit. Meeting us last minute at the winery was Texas Wine Lover writer Jim Rector.

We found the winery after a U-turn, drove through the narrow entrance into a beautiful facility, and walked to the building which was marked with a folding sign saying tasting room. It turned out the building was the event center where they hold weddings, dinners, and other events. The concerts are held outside adjacent to the building. The summer weather is why the weekend concerts stopped and the weekend wine tastings started inside.

The event center has a capacity for 150 people and at the end of the event center was the tasting bar. We were not the only ones who had thought about visiting the winery, but we were able to grab the last three seats at the tasting bar. There is a tasting fee for your choice of five wines. After making your selections, the wines are poured from the bottle and crackers are available to cleanse your palates between tastings. Your selection of wines are poured from sweet to dry.

These were some of the wines that were available when we visited:

• Sweet Moscato (Texas)
• Sparkling Moscato (Texas)
• Texas White – Dry Moscato
• 2016 Blanc du Bois Semi Sweet (Estate)
• 2015 Blanc du Bois BJ’s Reserve (Estate, some oak)
• WSV Red Silk – Red Blend (Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon, Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley)
• “The Girls in the Vineyard” Cabernet Sauvignon (Art+Farm Wine winery, Napa)
• 2014 Melipal Malbec (Melipal Bodega, Mendoza, Argentina)

As you can see, the white wines are Texas and the red wines are from California, or wines from other wineries. The Texas wines are made at Texas Custom Wine Works, and this past harvest will be supplying the winery with about 300 cases of their estate Blanc du Bois.

For a young winery, it is not uncommon for the red wine program to be in its infancy and growing. Since our visit, the winery should now have 2,500 bottles of Texas Malbec and in October, they are expecting 4,000 bottles of a Texas Sangiovese/Cabernet Sauvignon blend. They have contracted with two new Texas growers this year to add some additional reds.

Next year the winery will add Rosé, Blush, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sparkling Blanc, Sweet Blanc, and Dry Blanc. And finally, next year they are planning to only offer 100% Texas wines.

The winery does not really have a wine club yet, but if you want to purchase some wines, you can call them to order and simply stop by to pick the wine up.

When the weather starts getting cooler again, Sangria Saturdays will be starting in September, and you can be sure the concerts will begin again. I know we will be watching for the artists performing to make another trip to Wild Stallion Vineyards.